[New-Poetry] Borges

[David Bircumshaw]

 From 'Borges and the Right' originally published in the Fall, 1977 
edition of The Boston Review:

> In addition to falsifying his image, the cult of Borges has taken on 
> certain ideological overtones. It now provides indirect justification 
> for the present government in Argentina. Borges's support of the 
> military regime of Videla seems to be founded upon his intense dislike 
> of Videla's predecessor, Juan Peron. This dislike began in the 1940s 
> even before Peron became President for the first time. A liberal who 
> had favored the Spanish Republic, Borges objected to Peron's fascistic 
> policies and in particular to his support of Nazi Germany. When Peron 
> became President, he demoted Borges from his post as municipal 
> librarian to the rank of poultry inspector. He even imprisoned the 
> writer's mother and sister. While Peron remained in office, after the 
> coup which deposed him, and during all the intervening years, Borges's 
> opposition never diminished. When the Peronists were again elected in 
> 1973, he called it a "government of scoundrels." In an interview with 
> a Brazilian newspaper in 1975 he said: "When I think of the cases of 
> torture [in Argentina] I have the impression that my country.is 
> disintegrating morally as well as economically." In March 1976, when a 
> friend informed him that Isabela Peron had been overthrown, Borges 
> embraced him and wept. When he met Videla, he thanked him for "having 
> liberated the country from the infamy which we bore."
>
> Borges hated Peron because he was a demagogue who practiced torture 
> and suppressed civil liberties. And yet, he has now become a staunch 
> supporter of a regime which is not substantially different. One can 
> only conclude that he no longer espouses those principles of democracy 
> which Peron threatened to destroy thirty years ago. In fact, when he 
> was in Chile last year to receive that country's highest medal he 
> said: "In and of itself a dictatorship doesn't seem reprehensible, one 
> has to consider the particular circumstances. In itself empires don't 
> seem to be wrong. The Roman Empire and the British Empire did a lot of 
> good. . . . For a long time I believed in democracy. Now I don't 
> believe in it; at least not in my own country. Perhaps in other 
> countries democracy can be justified; but in the Republic of Argentina 
> I don't think we can trust it. . .Democracy [is] an abuse of 
> statistics. . .No one supposes that a majority of people can have 
> valid opinions about literature or about mathematics, but it is 
> believed that everyone can have valid opinions about politics, which 
> is more delicate than the other disciplines. . .Yes, it seems that to 
> destroy liberty is bad. But liberty lends itself to so many abuses. 
> There are certain liberties which constitute a form of impertinence."
>
> It is difficult to reconcile this image of Borges, spokesman for 
> military dictatorships such as that of Videla or even Pinochet, with 
> that of the Borges who wrote /Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, /the story 
> of a group of scholars who invent a planet. They elaborate all of the 
> aspects of life on Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius--its philosophical 
> system, languages, ethics, and customs--and then diffuse information 
> about it to the peoples of the world. As men of the earth learn of the 
> existence of Tlon, they "submit to the minute and vast evidence of an 
> ordered planet." Tlon becomes "real": its doctrines win out over 
> "dialectical materialism, antisemitism, nazism" and the other 
> "systems" which men had devised to bring order to the world.
>
> Implicit in /Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis, Tertius /and in many of his stories 
> is Borges's belief that the universe is incomprehensible. Any efforts 
> to order experience are ultimately revealed to be false and 
> inadequate. His skepticism extends to the realm of politics. He has 
> always proclaimed his independence from any political party, rejecting 
> nationalism with as much vehemence as communism. As he once said, "I 
> believe that one day we will deserve not to have governments." How 
> then can we explain his present espousal of the Videla cause? 
> Disgusted by the inability to govern which has characterized every 
> elected government in Argentina during the last twenty years, perhaps 
> he has opted for the "order" proffered by the Videla regime as the 
> only alternative to political and economic chaos. If that is the case, 
> then he has betrayed those ideals which have infused all of his works. 
> One can only conclude that the other Borges, the public figure, has 
> taken over at last. Years ago the author himself foresaw this 
> possibility: "little by little I am giving over everything to him, 
> though I am quite aware of his perverse custom of falsifying and 
> magnifying things."
>
> In spite of his awareness of this danger, Borges has allowed his 
> namesake to enter the political arena, where he now plays a key role 
> in the propaganda apparatus of the Videla government. It is indeed to 
> be regretted that he has become that government's most prestigious 
> spokesman for the /status quo, /for it is a /status quo /built upon 
> the destruction of democratic institutions and the repeated violation 
> of human rights.
>
> Whether it is responsible for his popularization or not, the 
> government has clearly profited from Borges's fame and from the 
> intense diffusion which all of his statements receive. An example of 
> this was seen in May 1976, when Borges met with Videla. Three other 
> writers were present: Ernesto Sibato, Leonardo Castellani, and Horacio 
> Esteban Ratti, President of the Writer's Union (SADE). Borges objected 
> to the fact that Ratti was invited, saying, "This individual 
> represents no one." Although this comment is entirely in keeping with 
> his belief that writers should not belong to a union because writing 
> is not a job but a destiny, his statement did considerable damage to 
> the cause which Ratti and the others had come to champion. They 
> presented Videla with a list of well-known authors who had been 
> imprisoned or who had simply disappeared and asked him what had become 
> of them. Because he objected to their presence, Borges undermined the 
> potential power of public opinion which the Writer's Union had hoped 
> to musterIn this instance, as a "living monument of national letters," 
> he gave tacit approval to the regime's repressive policies.
>
> Thus it is in the direct interest of the government to continue 
> serving up Borges as a distraction, an icon, the ultimate Argentinean 
> success story. At home, his countrymen not only bask in the reflected 
> glory of his international reputation, but they also recieve 
> assurances from their greatest writer that all is well in Argentina. 
> Abroad, potential critics of the regime may be disarmed--after all, a 
> government which has the support of Jorge Luis Borges can't be all 
> that bad.
>
> Originally published in the Fall 1977 issue of Boston Review
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Copyright Boston Review <mailto:review at mit.edu>, 1993--2005. All 
> rights reserved. Please do not reproduce without permission. 

-- 

David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk

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